If home to tournament is about 3 hours, do you prefer commuting or booking hotels?

[Guest]

hotel costs around $650, 0.5 hours driving to the game site

[Guest]

$650 per night?! Where are you staying...

I would consider a 3 hour drive, but it depends on time of matches, location (i.e. is it appealing for other reasons), whether that is 3 hours max with traffic or 3 hour plus traffic, how busy we are, etc etc. Usual calculations..

[Guest]

$650 per night?! Where are you staying...

$650 for 3 nights

[Guest]

I would consider a 3 hour drive, but it depends on time of matches, location (i.e. is it appealing for other reasons), whether that is 3 hours max with traffic or 3 hour plus traffic, how busy we are, etc etc. Usual calculations..

agree if the game is early morning, like 8 am, it is impossible to drive. In terms of we are busy or not, we have to take Friday off anyway and weekend we do not need to work.

[Guest]

$650 for 3 nights

Makes more sense. Not sure how new you are to this, or how locked in you might be to ECNL bundles, etc. But one strategy that lots of parents on our team have done is book for the 3 nights if you're able to cancel, and then sometimes cancel one or two of those nights if the match schedule would permit a comfortable drive. Of course those match schedules get released at the last minute, but that's a different story...

[Guest]

Definitely hotel. If commuting each day, you're driving at least 1 tank of gas each day (3 tanks total), plus you're in the car for 18 hours on the weekend. Staying at a hotel, you're saving on 2 tanks of gas and 12 hours in the car. Plus your kid will be better-rested for his/her games.

[Guest]

hotel costs around $650, 0.5 hours driving to the game site

We consider anything over 2 hours with game schedule taken into account. 2 hour commutes each way 2 days in a row are a drain, aren’t great for performance, and tolls, gas, mileage all contribute to that decision.
Most places we can find something to do, find a cheaper hotel if the team isnt staying and enjoy the night stay.
Even at really rural tournaments we have found a bowling alley, gotten a pizza, mini golf, ice cream, a movie theater. There’s generally plenty of things to find to do to make a memory where they actually want to be with you.

[Guest]

Find a campsite near the fields. Live off the land. Make your child hunt, kill and cook their meal. It's good protein to fuel their dominance throughout the tournament.

[Guest]

Find a campsite near the fields. Live off the land. Make your child hunt, kill and cook their meal. It's good protein to fuel their dominance throughout the tournament.

The tournament organizer will assign a hotel for each team and all players have to book the hotel through a specific travel agency, isn't it?

[Guest]

We consider anything over 2 hours with game schedule taken into account. 2 hour commutes each way 2 days in a row are a drain, aren’t great for performance, and tolls, gas, mileage all contribute to that decision.
Most places we can find something to do, find a cheaper hotel if the team isnt staying and enjoy the night stay.
Even at really rural tournaments we have found a bowling alley, gotten a pizza, mini golf, ice cream, a movie theater. There’s generally plenty of things to find to do to make a memory where they actually want to be with you.

plus the increased chance of getting involved in accident when driving over exhausted - not worth it.

[Guest]

The tournament organizer will assign a hotel for each team and all players have to book the hotel through a specific travel agency, isn't it?

Stay to Play Rules: Stay-to-Play means that in order to participate in the tournament or event, teams and athletes must stay in one of the official hotels set up by the official housing company.

[Guest]

Stay to Play Rules: Stay-to-Play means that in order to participate in the tournament or event, teams and athletes must stay in one of the official hotels set up by the official housing company.

Pay to play model lol they know how to make that money you driving more then your kid might play

[Guest]

Since you are staying 3 nights does that mean there are 3 days of games so 18 hours of driving?

hotel for sure. At least you can get a hotel 30 mins away. Drives me crazy that for tournaments down at tuckahoe the closest nice hotels are 45 minutes away (just had to complain about that again)

[Guest]

Stay to Play Rules: Stay-to-Play means that in order to participate in the tournament or event, teams and athletes must stay in one of the official hotels set up by the official housing company.

That’s only a requirement for teams not within distance. Tournaments never say anything as long as you are around 50% booked if you are not considered a “local” team and even then, it’s perfectly ok for you to stay at home if you can.

[Guest]

Stay to Play Rules: Stay-to-Play means that in order to participate in the tournament or event, teams and athletes must stay in one of the official hotels set up by the official housing company.

I wonder they do have a way to enforce the stay to play rule